Your eyes have seen all that the LORD did in
Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land. With your own eyes
you saw those great trials, those miraculous signs and great wonders. But to
this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or
ears that hear. During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your
clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. You ate no bread and
drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I
am the LORD your God.

When you reached this place, Sihon king of
Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated
them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the
Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so
that you may prosper in everything you do. All of you are standing today in the
presence of the LORD your God -- your leaders and chief men, your elders and
officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your
wives, and the aliens living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your
water. You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD
your God, a covenant the LORD is making with you this day and sealing with an
oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he
promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I am
making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here
with us today in the presence of the LORD our God but also with those who are
not here today.

You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how
we passed through the countries on the way here. You saw among them their
detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. Make sure
there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away
from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure
there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

When such a person hears the words of this oath,
he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, "I will be safe, even
though I persist in going my own way." This will bring disaster on the watered
land as well as the dry. The LORD will never be willing to forgive him; his
wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book
will fall upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. The
LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according
to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.

Your children who follow you in later generations
and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have
fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it. The
whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur -- nothing planted, nothing
sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger. All
the nations will ask: "Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce,
burning anger?"

And the answer will be: "It is because this
people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the
covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and
worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had
not given them. Therefore the LORD's anger burned against this land, so that he
brought on it all the curses written in this book. In furious anger and in great
wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land,
as it is now."

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but
the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow
all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 30 (NIV)

When all these blessings and curses I have set
before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God
disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the
LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according
to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your
fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations
where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land
under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you
back. He will bring you to the land that belonged
to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more
prosperous and numerous than your fathers. The LORD your God will circumcise
your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with
all your heart and with all your soul, and live. The LORD your God will put all
these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. You will again obey the
LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the LORD your God
will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of
your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will
again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your
fathers, if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that
are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul.

Now what I am commanding you today is not too
difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have
to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may
obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the
sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?"
No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may
obey it.

See, I set before you today life and prosperity,
death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to
walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live
and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering
to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not
obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,
I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not
live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses
against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now
choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the
LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your
life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your
fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Deuteronomy 31 (NIV)

Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all
Israel:

I am now a hundred and twenty years old and I am
no longer able to lead you. The LORD has said to me, 'You shall not cross the
Jordan.' The LORD your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy
these nations before you, and you will take possession of their land. Joshua
also will cross over ahead of you, as the LORD said. And the LORD will do to
them what he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, whom he destroyed
along with their land. The LORD will deliver them to you, and you must do to
them all that I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid
or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never
leave you nor forsake you.